Fig 1.
Location of the Zvejnieki burial site and spatial distribution of burials.
Location of the site on Lake Burtnieks, northern Latvia (a) Basemap © Estonian Environment Agency, Estonian Land Board, National Land Survey of Finland, Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS [4]; Spatial distribution of the 330 known burials at Zvejnieki (b). Map image was produced by the authors and is the intellectual property of Esri and is used herein under license. Copyright © 2025 Esri and its licensors. All rights reserved.
Table 1.
Description of Zvejnieki cemetery lithic contexts. Description of Zvejnieki cemetery lithic contexts after Zagorskis [7]; Larsson et al. [8] with Stone Dead Project’s categorisation and abbreviation, see S1 File.
Table 2.
Burials, numbered 1-330, their year of excavation and relevant publication.
Fig 2.
Non-patinated, patinated and thermal stress lithic artefacts.
First row (non-patinated) – burial 207 (sample 145, VI93:420a), burial 90 (samples 34, 35, both under the same museum no. VI93:117) affected by thermal stress; Second and third row – Artefacts partially and completely covered with patina and blue film representing the initial stage of patina formation, burial 201 (samples 134–136, VI93:391–393); burial 194 (sample 115, VI93:374), burial 221, (sample 242, VI93:374), burial 236 (sample 251, VI93:678). Artefacts are part of the Zvejnieki cemetery collection (VI93) stored in the Latvian National Museum of History.
Fig 3.
All bifacial points from PDs and OPDs.
Burial 201 – samples 137–14 (VI93:386–390); burial 204 – sample 142 (VI93:406); burial 207 – samples 146 (VI93:420), 159 (VI93:423), 165 (VI93:432), 162 (VI93:427), 166 (VI93:442), 167 (VI93:444), 170 (VI93:451); burial 211 – samples 192 (VI93:475), 193 (VI93:473), 194 (VI93:474); burial 221 – samples 243 (VI93:599), 244 (VI93:600); burial 325 – samples 299–302 (museum numbers not assigned); burial 252 – sample 272 (VI93:702); burial 263 – sample 275 (VI93:719); burial 276 – sample 290 (VI93:746). Artefacts are part of the Zvejnieki cemetery collection (VI93) stored in the Latvian National Museum of History.
Table 3.
Age group categories.
Table 4.
Burials and associated types of deposits.
Fig 4.
Map showing the distribution of burials with PD (a) and OPD (b) lithics.
Fig 5.
Bar chart showing number of PD and OPD lithic burials associated with each millennia category.
Fig 6.
Spatial distribution of millennia dates for PD and OPD burials.
Table 5.
Quantities of different sex categories of all 350 individuals from Zvejnieki and presence of artefacts for all individuals.
Table 6.
Sex categories of individuals with PD and/or OPD lithics.
Table 7.
Age categories for all 350 individuals and presence of artefacts by age category.
Table 8.
Age categories of individuals with PD and/or OPD lithics.
Table 9.
Typologies of lithics from Zvejnieki PD and OPD burial contexts.
Fig 7.
The quantity of main tool types during each millennium.
Table 10.
Count of typologies in relation to osteological and aDNA sex categories from PD and OPD.
Table 11.
Count of typologies in relation to age categories from PD and OPD.
Fig 8.
Quantity of the different traces (contact materials) found on lithic artefacts in PD and OPD.
Fig 9.
Post-depositional surface modifications on Zvejnieki flint artefacts.
Soil sheen on edge and non-diagnostics scars (not developed from use), ventral surface, sample 291 (VI93:772), burial 277 (a); Soil sheen on distal area of the blade, ventral surface, distal area, sample 294 (museum number not assigned), burial 320 (b). All photos taken by metallographic microscope. Artefacts belong to the Zvejnieki cemetery collection (VI93) stored in the Latvian National Museum of History.
Fig 10.
Microwear traces on two flint artefacts.
Processing hide, sample 198 (VI93:472), burial 211 (a); Mineral processing, sample 238 (VI93:603), burial 221 (b). All micrographs taken by metallographic microscope. Artefacts are part of the Zvejnieki cemetery collection (VI93) stored in the Latvian National Museum of History in Riga.
Fig 11.
Distribution of lithics in burials with no visible wear (orange) and with wear traces (grey).
Fig 12.
Spatial distribution of flakes (n = 84).
Fig 13.
Spatial distribution of blades (n = 29).
Fig 14.
Spatial distribution of scrapers (n = 17).
Fig 15.
Spatial distribution of knives (n = 3).
Fig 16.
Spatial distribution of bifacial points (n = 25).
Fig 17.
High density lithic burials and other burials with lithic assemblages of interest.
Table 12.
Quantity and type of lithics found associated with Burial 201.
Table 13.
Quantity and type of lithics found associated with Burial 207.
Table 14.
Quantity and type of lithics found in association with Burial 211.
Table 15.
Quantity and type of lithics found in association with Burial 221.
Fig 18.
Reconstruction drawing of collective burial 263, 264 and 264a.
Table 16.
Quantity and type of lithics found in association with Burial 264.